Shadows Precursor Series: The Next World
by Archdruid-Sephiroth
Summary: Part of the "Of Shadows and Dust" story line. Celes meets Cid for the first time and tells him her plight. Rated for Cid's mouth.


Disclaimer: I do not own FF7 or FF6, its characters or locations, items, yadda yadda yadda, yeah we've all been here before….

Of Shadows and Dust - Precursor Series: To the Next World

**Intro**

Officially, this story is a part of "Of Shadows and Dust", it chronicles Celes's first meeting with Cid Highwind. It explains how she met Avalanche and how she convinced them to help her. It takes place about 2 weeks after Advent Children and just shy of 3 months before Shadows begins.

**To The Next World**

"Son-of-a-BITCH!"

This was about the twelfth time Cait heard that today. While he was trying to complete his computer room on board the Shera, Cid was busy trying to overhaul the engines for the 3rd time this week. The pattern was predictable… CLANG, CLANG, SMASH, "Son-of-a-BITCH", repeat about 20 times and then he'd stop for the day. By his count 8 to 10 more and that would be that for now. In the meantime, Cait had his own hands full getting the database servers set up for his computer room.

After Geostigma was abolished, Rufus was true to his word. He began looking for additional alternative energy sources for powering Edge and continued the rebuilding project within Old Midgar. Although it was obvious that the rebuilding effort inside the old city would take decades at its current rate, Rufus seemed confident that he'd see its completion within the next 5 years. Cait inwardly wondered what plans Rufus had to speed the recovery along, he could only wonder just what exactly….

"GODDAMNIT!"

Another shout from Cid derailed his train of thought. Sighing to himself, he left the computer room and headed down to the engine room. As he decended the stairs he saw Nanaki making his way up them casually.

"Hey," Cait said upon seeing the great red cat.

"I wouldn't go down there if I were you," Nanaki replied as if to answer a question yet to be voiced. "Cid is fit to be tied at the moment."

"That's normal," Cait replied. "Maybe I can lend him a hand."

"And just what do you know about radial turbine prop engines? Last I checked you were involved in zoning and urban development a few years back, not R&D."

Cait chuckled softly. "You'd be surprised Red. You would be surprised."

In reality Cait a few years ago knew exactly two things about such monster engines; Jack and shit. Nowadays though, with most of the urban redevelopment being handled by The Shinra Electric Power Company and he no longer being employed by Rufas, he had a lot of time to expand his horizons. He spent much of the construction time needed for the engines with Cid and picked up quite a few things. If there is anything Cait learned is sometimes you need an armature eye to spot the problems that a more experienced one might overlook.

"Good luck with that," Nanaki said as he reached the top of the stairwell and promptly disappeared around the corner.

Cait proceeded to the side door labeled "Starboard Hatch 3A" and stepped out onto the maze of catwalks and service cranes. The Shera was parked at an airbase Rufus had set up originally for recon ships but gave a generous part of it to Avalanche as a "Thank you for saving our asses for the 2nd time" and "Sorry for screwing things up in the first place" gift. Cloud was surprised by the token but Cid seemed to expect it. Rufus was a bit of a Megalomaniac and a Pain in the Ass sometimes, but even he knew the value of reliable 3rd party support when he saw it.

This was precisely the reason he needed those database servers up and running. Rufus had in addition offered a direct download of virtually all of Shinra's research notes and accumulated knowledge, which meant he needed a lot of data storage if he was going to keep all that data on board where he can keep his paws on it. He had a feeling that data would help in the future.

Making his way along the outside of the airship, he eventually came to one of the massive engines The Shera boasted. The engine was pulled opened and many of its parts were strewn about a metal platform as Cid worked on it. It was a daunting task to be sure, especially since this was not the only engine, so Cait could understand that Cid was running into some complications as he was doing most of the work himself. As he got closer, he heard the sound of a socket wrench being turned.

"Anything I can help you with Cid?" he asked tentatively.

"Yeah actually," he grunted out of his mouth. The sound of his voice was a little off since Cid currently had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth with almost 2 inches of ash at the tip. How he didn't blow himself up when he worked on a gas engine with a lit cigarette in his mouth was a mystery that Cait could never solve. It just came to be expected that this was just one of Cid's many talents.

"Hand me that torque range," he continued. "I think I might be close to being done with this cylinder finally. Only took me three fucking days."

Cait examined the ground around him and found what he was looking for. As he reached up to hand it to the pilot he noticed something that didn't seem right.

"Here. Did you notice this spark cap over here?"

"Which one," Cid responded.

"Cylinder 5."

Cid looked at it and grunted. "Motherfucker. I just replaced that fucking thing last week!"

"Might want to check the valve pressure in that cylinder, it could be too high."

"Good thinking. See, I knew there was a reason we kept you around."

Cait smirked. "You mean other than comic relief?"

"Heh," was his only response. "There, its set. Now to deal with that blasted spark cap…."

Cait's eyes drifed around the port. It looked like a few of Shinra's new recon airships were taking off from a nearby field. To his surprise, a strangely dressed woman was approaching the drydock.

"Hey, I'm gonna check this out. Be right back."

"No problem, this part should be relatively…" POP "Motherfucker! The gasket under the cap just ruptured."

"I'll get a replacement while I'm down there," Cait replied and then jumped down from the platform towards the ground. It was about a 30' drop but Cait knew his mechanical body could easily survive the impact. He landed on his feat a mear 15' away from the mysterious young woman and took a closer look at her as she looked at him with confused curiosity.

She was beautiful, Cait decided. Long very light blond almost white hair, pretty blue eyes and a white outfit that was both revealing and flattering. Her shoulders, chest and lower torso were all protected with Silvery plates and the cloth seemed rather expensive. To top it off she had a flowing white cloak with a hood but the hood was down, allowing the woman's hair to cascade around her shoulders.

To say she stood out was an understatement; her clothing, appearance and even the way she walked made her seem alien in a way compared to what he was used to. He wondered if she was some eccentric or maybe a cosplayer.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

The woman looked at him strangely for a moment and let the weirdness of a two and a half foot tall, talking cat sink in. "Perhaps. I'm looking for the leader of Avalanche. I was told I could see him here."

"Who told you that?"

"A man with red hair who called himself… Reno… I think…" She seemed confused on this point. "He was a bit of a strange man if that helps."

Cait chuckled. "Yeah, I know him… and your in the right place. The man you want is up there." He pointed towards the platform he came from.

"That mechanic?" she asked questioningly.

"Yeah that's him."

"I see…" with that she crouched a bit and jumped… over 30' straight up, and landed gracefully on the platform.

"Wow," he whispered at that sight. "Someone who could give Cloud a run for his money… This should be an interesting day after all. Now, where was that parts crate?"

Cid heard the woman land on the platform behind him and pulled his head out of the engine. He looked the woman up and down a moment drawing similar conclusions to what Cait Sith had thought about her before he tossed the socket wrench on a nearby table and reached for another cigarette.

"Something I can help you with sweetie?" he asked. The tone was not condescending. Though Cid lacked tact in the normal sense he knew how to inflect his words to convey the proper meaning.

"Yes," she said. "Are you the leader of Avalanche?" Her voice was calm and even though at the same time it sounded hopeful. Cid figured she had an excellent singing voice.

"Yeah," he replied as he lit the cigarette and grabbed a rag, whipping the grease off of his hands. "Cid Highwind, at your service." After cleaning his hand he extended it to the woman who looked at it for a moment before taking it.

"My name is Celes Chere," she stated. "I have need of Avalanche's help, but it's a bit of a strange topic of conversation and you might not fully believe all of it."

'This ought to be good,' Cid thought. "Let's go to my office then." He causally tapped the cigarette and walked down the same walkways towards the door.

A minute later, they entered his office, a room that ajoined his cabin near the bridge. "Pull up a chair," he said gesturing towards the chair on the near side of the desk.

Celes looked around the room a moment before sitting down. The walls were lined with shelving on 3 sides displaying interesting trinkets and technical manuals. On one wall, a set of hooks were lined up holding a simply breathtaking looking spear on it. She took note of the odd spherical indentations and small metal tracks running between them in pairs on the shaft near the head.

"You like it?" Cid asked, noticing her attraction to the weapon. She nodded and he continued. "It's called The Venus Gospel. One of a kind it is. Now… onto business. What can Avalanche do for you?"

"Let me ask you something first," she started. "Do you believe in the concept of 'alternate realities'?"

Cid thought for a moment. "Most people around here would call you crazy for talking about it," he replied. "But I've seen some strange shit in my time so I'm willing to believe just about anything at this point."

It wasn't the answer she was looking for but at least he seemed willing to humor her for the time being. "They do exist. I am from one of those realities. My world, Cid, has been decimated and nearly burnt out. The details of what happened would take a very long time to fully explain but in short, our world is dying. Children are being born dead, animal populations are at an all time low and the earth itself refuses to yield crops. Our food reserves will be gone within 5 years. After that… I fear there is little hope for us."

Cid listened to her; paid attention to her inflections, her body language and her eyes. He could only conclude that either she was telling the truth or she truly believed what she was saying.

"So how did you get here?" he asked.

"I learned the secret of traveling between alternate realities long ago," she replied. "I've explored a dozen dimensions and all of them, save for this one, are uninhabitable or lack any resources needed to sustain what little is left of our people."

Cid decided to test to see how true this was. "Can you take others with you when you do this plane-shift thing?"

She nodded. "I can."

"Can you take me there? If we're gonna help I need to see what we're gonna get ourselves into."

"Of course," she replied and stood up. Cid stood up with her and approached her. "Take my hand."

Cid took her left hand into his right as she started to draw strange patterns in the air. As she did so, a small greenish energy trail followed it and the air around him felt electrified. Suddenly the world around him began to fade away, the office quickly being replaced with some dark landscape.

When it was over Cid gasped at the darkness of it all. He watched the angry sky weave and boil as if it was alive and had a pulse. The desolate landscape seemed to go on forever in every direction, no sign of even a single blade of grass anywhere. But what hit him hardest was the wind… the cold air movement around him was reminiscent of the North Crater only somehow intensified. He instantly decided that this was hell.

"Holy shit," he whispered. "This place is a goddamned nightmare!"

Celes nodded solemnly. "And it's only getting worse. But I've been working on a possible way to restore it. It would seem magic is the key to life itself."

"Huh," Cid responded. "Where we come from it's the Lifestream; a current of energy that flows around and within the planet. It sounds pretty fucking similar here."

"Lifestream," Celes whispered. "I've never heard of this concept. Perhaps it can help me if I learn more about it."

Cid laughed. "We're experts on that sweetie. So I guess you came to the right place."

"Your world is pretty large Cid," she said. "What I need from Avalanche is two fold; I need help restoring my world to life, and I must ask if an evacuation would be possible."

"I'll speak with the others about this," he replied. "But I know what the answer will be… a resounding yes. The problem though is how are we gonna move them all. I gotta assume that you can't planeshift them all by yourself."

"And there in lies my payment to you," she answered. "I have plans for a portaling device that can be installed on an airship but it will take about a month to build it. Also the materials are quite expensive, some of which can only be found here on my world. So here is the deal; I supply you with the components needed to build a portaling device onto your airship and give you the plans for your own purposes in exchange for your help. I wish I could offer more but…"

"Bah," Cid cut in, "this kind of work we do without payment or any expected compensation. Cloud's the kind of person who would want in on something like this."

"Cloud?" she asked.

"The best of us," he responded. "He wasn't always that helpful, but I think the events that plagued us the last few years made him finally come around."

Cid looked about one last time. "This is gonna be one hell-of-an adventure. Hope everyone's up to this."

As the sky rolled above him, Cid felt a small pain in his heart. This world really was getting to him… and although he knew that the work ahead would be hard, he had every confidence in his friends' ability to see this though to the end.

**Outro**

And that is how Celes first came to be with Avalanche. The next few months would be hard on all of them; the need to perfect the engines, find more lasting fuel sources and creating the portaling device to take them between worlds… but that is a story for another time….

**End**

A/N: This story continues in "Of Shadows and Dust". It is a story that centers around an original character named Kyrie, the Last Esper, her trials and tribulations and the continuing saga of Avalanche in this Alternate Timeline.

I hope you enjoyed this work of fanfiction, and I hope you enjoy the continuing saga. Leave a review if you'd like; let me know if you liked it, thought it sucked or just want to provide helpful feedback. This is only my second work on this site so any feedback is appreciated.


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